The Bucks to play on Christmas for first time since 1977

Football may have custody over Thanksgiving, but Christmas Day has long been basketball’s turf. And this year, the Milwaukee Bucks will help deck the halls.

The NBA on Wednesday released its schedule for the 2018-19 season, and it includes the Bucks visiting the New York Knicks at 11 a.m. on Dec. 25. This will be the Bucks’ fifth time playing on the holiday, and their first appearance since 1977 (the team’s all-time record is 2-2).

Christmas games are a tradition for the league, a way to compete with the endless loop of A Christmas Story on TBS. Other highlights this year include a Lakers/Warriors matchup that will once again pit LeBron James and Stephen Curry — arguably the game’s two biggest stars — against each other. Also, the Utah Jazz will be playing the Portland Trail Blazers, if you’re into that sort of thing.

This is a big step for the Mike Budenholzer-led Bucks, as Christmas is generally reserved for the NBA’s elite, so it is all the more confusing that the Knicks are playing. While it would surely be fun to watch Giannis Antetokounmpo versus Kristaps Porzingis (but also impossible, since ’Zingis will spend the majority of the season recovering from an ACL injury), one can’t help but look at the rest of the Knicks’ roster and wonder how they got here.

I mean, get a load of this:

The second-best weapon behind Porzingis is also the second-best Tim Hardaway.

These seasoned veterans are a combined 350 years old. Also, the Knicks last year were Jarrett Jack’s eighth team in 13 seasons (that’s actually true).

And this man looks like a computer-generated player in NBA2K. In fact, I’m not entirely convinced he isn’t some video department intern they threw a jersey on to pad out the roster.